


chattr

by onlyganymede



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged Up, Alya Césaire Ships It, Alya Césaire-centric, Barbara Gordon Ships It, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Blogger!Lila Rossi, F/M, GIMS, Gen, Good Lila Rossi, IDENTITY SHENANIGANS, Internet friends to lovers, MariBat, Minor epistolary elements, Timinette really starts like halfway through, alternative to the Ladyblog, chattr, if I got computer stuff wrong then this is sci-fi, mozart - Freeform, tech-savvy Alya Césaire, uni aged characters, vivaldi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29458593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlyganymede/pseuds/onlyganymede
Summary: Thank you chattr user! Your patience with our server maintenance is greatly appreciated. Our highly anticipated update now enables you to chat with more than just Chat. Find your local heroes online now by clicking the link below. . .
Relationships: Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Max Kanté, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Ladybug/Red Robin, Rena Rouge/Carapace, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake & Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 12
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

Let Alya Césaire never be accused of concocting ridiculously elaborate plans without a solid follow-through. Yes, she had perhaps been demanding the impossible of fate, the universe, and anything decent you could swear on when she had attempted to wrangle the elusive Parisian heroes into appearing as certified members on her website, but she had done it. She had accomplished what was absolutely improbable. Alya was on top of the world.

With her initial launch of chattr, Alya was elated to see the positive feedback for her website; it seemed that she was almost a heroine in her own right for bringing this into being. She had named it in the style of other popular social media sites, but with a special twist based on the presence of Chat Noir. There was no other superhero-civilian communiqué network in existence. Alya’s was the first. And she was determined to be the best.

The website featured a homepage with updates and news, and a way for civilians to create accounts. Alya hadn’t wanted the burden of allowing anonymous interactions, as that could easily lead to trolling she didn’t think she was equipped to handle. Once a civilian was logged in, they could switch between their own settings and account history, the homepage, the chattr staff page, and a directory of Parisian superheroes. Alya had designed this part mostly for fun, since Paris did not have a large network of heroes.

If a civilian clicked on a hero, their page would pop up. This was mostly intended to be for announcements, fun facts, polls, and the like. Civilians were welcome to post on heroes’ pages, and it wouldn’t obstruct the things the heroes posted. However, Alya made sure to have a blanket disclaimer on the chattr staff page that heroes were not obligated to respond, and that measures were in place to stop spamming. Nobody needed to know that those spamming-stopping features were yet to be fully developed.

Alya took greatest pride in the fact that the website not only was superhero-approved, but also vouched for by both Ladybug and Chat Noir as a Parisian necessity for the hero scene. She was glad then that she had taken measures to prevent individual civilian pages and private civilian chats. This wasn’t your average social media platform. This was clearly focused around the heroes. Alya felt powerful for having delivered what was growing to be an essential factor in Parisian society.

It didn’t take long after the launch for Nadja Chamack to invite her for an interview on live TV. What made Alya conceptualize the beginnings of chattr? What sort of relationship did she have to Ladybug and Chat Noir? And what kind of things could Paris expect from the website in the future?

Alya had been well-prepared to answer the first question, no problem. That was something she had rehearsed. As to the second, she gave her best wink to the cameraman and stated that some things were meant to stay a secret. Alya had not expected the third question (in hindsight, she should have), but did not suffer drawing a blank. Instead, she rattled off so many interesting ideas that she was sure she could eventually learn how to install. Chattr would have an internalized messaging system between superheroes, a verification check for the moderators to add new superheroes to the system, and even, farthest down the line, separate servers for other locales to interact with their own heroes.

Alya’s heart sang all the way after her interview. A real interview live with Mme. Chamack? At her young age? Incredible! Not many others could say the same.

The following week, right before class, Max claimed the seat that the extraordinarily late Marinette usually sat in. Right next to Alya.

“That’s Marinette’s spot Max, what’s going on?” She asked him.

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Markov chirped happily next to him. “Well Alya, I wanted to talk to you about chattr.”

“Oh?” Alya was surprised that Max was showing this much interest in her success. “Did you watch my interview?”

“Of course,” Max nodded. “I doubt that any less than seventeen-point-five percent of Parisians did not see it, as a matter of fact.” Markov hummed in agreement.

“Oh!” Alya exclaimed, pleased by this statistic.

“It’s very ambitious. And you clearly do not know how to increase web security. What if someone wanted to hack into chattr? I already did.”

Alya was outraged. Her firewalls, weak? Who did he think she was, an amateur? Yeah, right.

Max simply raised a brow at her.

Marinette scrambled inside the classroom, closing the door just as the bell rang. She raised both of her brows at Alya’s new desk partner, and moved to sit back at a farther row.

Alya briefly buried her face in her hands, composing herself.

“What, Max? You think that just because you could get past my firewalls that any regular Jean from the streets could do it?”

Markov flurried with excitement. “Max is ninety-nine percent more likely to hack into your website, c-h-a-t-t-r, for fun than any other Parisian.”

“Don’t go judging my web design! You weren’t there when I painfully constructed it!” She said.

Max sighed. “I was not trying to offend you. Merely, I was—”

“M. Kanté! Class is beginning,” interrupted Mme. Mendeleiev.

“—offering my assistance,” Max whispered to Alya, glancing at her quickly before returning his attention to their teacher.

Despite Mme. Mendeleiev’s strictness, they were extremely glad for her presence at their university. It was nice to see her flourish under professorship in ways that were impossible at Collège Françoise Dupont.

During that day’s lunch break, Alya quickly made amends with Marinette, who brushed off Max’s unexpected seat-stealing and told Alya there was nothing to apologize for. Alya then apologized again saying that she and Max were working on something together, and would it be okay to ditch her best friend at lunch just this once? Marinette laughingly said it was just fine, and said she could hang out with Alix instead.

One thing led to another, and Alya and Max found themselves frequently meeting up at each other’s houses, working on intricacies of chattr, including a mobile application, measures to prevent spamming, and brainstorming and implementing what seemed to be the greatest assets to include on a superhero’s chattr page.

* * *

“Max, do you feel like it’s a good idea to regulate heroes by a trusted person, or a trusted hero?”

“What do you mean, Alya? I thought we already were decided on the status of moderators.”

“I know,” she responded, spread out on her bed and polishing her glasses, “but I just think it would make more sense if we only had to moderate the moderators ourselves, with us being _us_ , and the moderators being trusted heroes!”

“Hmmm,” Max mused. “What do you think, Markov?”

“The logic of delegating moderation to moderators is significantly more efficient than doing it on your own,” the robot vocalized.

“True. And how should we vet moderators?” Max asked. “Come to think of it, Alya, how did you even vet Chat Noir and Ladybug in the first place?”

Alya sat up suddenly, looking sheepishly down at Max’s place on her rug. “I didn’t actually vet them. I kind of invited them aggressively to join it after I created it, and after Chat Noir heard me say that the name, chattr, was inspired by him, he insisted on joining. After him, it wasn’t hard to convince Ladybug that it was practical.”

“Impressive!” Markov intoned.

Alya sipped deeply from her water bottle, and turned her attention back to her laptop. When she had first received the box with her fox pendant miraculous from an old man claiming to be its guardian, she hadn’t known what to think! He had seemed to believe in her, so she had decided to play it cool around chattr and not jump the gun on creating an account for herself. Alya was very relieved now that she hadn’t, or else she wouldn’t have known where to begin on vetting her own account.

Max was deep in thought. “And how again did you prevent just anyone from creating an account? How did they do it?”

“Well, I gave them each a code to use, time-sensitive, of course, and they just did it right then and there!” She gave Max and Markov meaningful glances. “So there was no tracking any IP addresses from civilian account creation on their part.”

Max nodded. This made sense to him. “Speaking of which, they must have magic.”

Alya fidgeted uncomfortably. “Oh? And what makes you think that? Isn’t that just a crazy theory?”

“No,” Max looked at her strangely. “It’s my working theory. You want evidence? Look at this.” Max dug out his phone and seemed to search seriously for something for a time. “Here.”

Alya took the phone, and found a photo of the strangest things she had ever seen.

“What’s this supposed to be? Some occult magical phrases in some protolanguage?”

“Hah. No. This is what comes up whenever I have tried to look at their IP addresses.”

“Holy…” Alya trailed off, handing his phone back to him. “Can you send me that? That’s way cool.”

Max nodded.

Markov hovered in between them, a little bit frantic.

“Remember: the task at hand is deciding how to vet moderators,” Markov reminded them, before backing away and flying over to Max’s other side again.

“Right!” Alya exclaimed, snapping her fingers. “Back to work!”

* * *

In the following months, more heroines and heroes turned up to help save Paris from the source of the elusive akumas. Ladybug and Chat Noir were quick to promise on chattr that the new members of their hero roster would soon be online, but that placing in them in the system might take a while to process.

“Max! Did you get the code to Rena Rouge?”

Alya had planted that idea in Max’s head: that since Ladybug was so busy both in and out of costume, they should ask someone else from her team to be the hero moderator. Max had needed almost no persuading to agree that Rena Rouge was an excellent choice. However it did look like he would need some persuasion to actually give her the code to join chattr as a moderator. For now, she was stuck with a regular hero account. Alya had informed Max that was the last time she would contact Rena Rouge.

“I am waiting until I see her online, so that there is as little chance of a hacker obtaining it as possible.”

Alya sighed, giving Markov a look. “I thought no one but you could hack into this baby anymore?”

Max shook his head. “There’s always a chance that someone else could, even if the odds of it actually happening are practically improbable,” he said. “Would you want someone else to be able to discover one of our heroes’ identities?”

“Of course not! But maybe, just maybe, we won’t have to worry about it?” She asked, hopeful that he would concede. She didn’t want to have to duck out ‘to the bathroom’ just to go online and accept his moderator code. If she did that now, wouldn’t Max get suspicious eventually? It’s not like using the miraculous to transform was subtle.

This time, they were in Max’s room. He was very well set up to work on their website, with multiple monitors and ample space at his desk.

Max turned in his swivel chair to look at Alya. She asked him, “Shouldn’t we make a protocol on how to handle this? What if we compromise? We send her the code, or you know, any future supers, and then if she or anyone else don’t use their codes within twenty-four hours, they disappear?”

“That’s not a bad idea…” Max said. He pursed his lips and pushed his glasses up. “If you want her to have the code by today, I guess I can do that.And then I can erase it from the system if she doesn’t look…”

“And you think you could set up expiry codes in the future?” She asked, eyes bright.

“Yes. Shouldn’t be harder than anything else we’ve done,” he affirmed.

After Max sent the code in, he asked Markov to remind him in twenty-four hours to invalidate the code if Rena Rouge hadn’t yet used it.

Alya and Max liked to hang out after their ‘work meetings’ for chattr, and so that day they elected to go walking. Usually, their walks resulted in either an arcade or a pâtisserie.

In light spring jackets, they happily mused to themselves, Markov following jauntily behind.

In their typical fashion, they wound up in line for pastries. As they waited for the last customer in front of them to finish their transaction, Alya’s phone rang.

She quickly picked up, shooting an apologetic look at Max. “Hey, it’s Alya—Marinette?! Hey girl! Everything good?”

Max gave Alya a light shove to her arm, indicating it was almost their turn at the register.

“Wow wait what? Hold the phone! She really did that? Incredible! Okay, okay. Yeah, I know. I’m telling Max, okay? Okay, love you girl, bye!” Alya hung up, and turned to Max, smiling. “As soon as we get those tarts, we are out of here. I have wild news.”

Max did not know what that meant, but he hoped it was good.

Once they had both payed and exited the pâtisserie, and Alya had devoured half of her delicate pear tart, she shared the news.

“You will never guess what!” She said around a mouthful of the dessert.

“Actually, Max has a fourteen percent chance of correctly guessing what you learned on the phone,” Markov contributed.

Max smiled. “Thanks Markov. But I’m sure I don’t know, Alya. What is it?”

“Famed travel lifestyle blogger Lila Rossi, of _Rossi Around the Globe,_ is marking a major change in her blogging career!”

Max glanced at Markov briefly, one brow raised. They had now almost completed the circuit of their walk, which would end back at his place.

“She just announced a new blog, by her, about chattr! And she’s already been blogging about when the rest of ‘Team Ladybug’ will join on!”

“The closest I have come to blogging is our work on chattr. But my mother is a big fan of _Rossi Around the Globe_ , so I already know this will impact our user statistics phenomenally,” Max said.

“Right? What’s more, your sending of the code to Rena Rouge was perfect timing today! If Rossi’s new chattr-based blog is as popular as her travelogue, then the anticipation for the rest of the heroes will be through the roof!”

Later that evening, back in her own home, younger sisters already asleep and out of her way, Alya was hunched over her laptop on her bed. Chattr might’ve officially gained Lila Rossi as a powerful member today (@rossirouge), a bona fide Rena Rouge fangirl, but chattr had _also_ just gained the bona fide Rena Rouge as its first heroine moderator. Alya was on top of the world. On top of _her_ world. With Carapace and Queen Bee about to enter it.

* * *

_To welcome our newest heroes to the Parisian chattr directory, our staff will be hosting a few rounds of Q &A with our heroes! Join us tonight for new exclusive information, including more on the mysterious arrival of their miraculi featuring @RenaRouge and @Ladybug, more on the nature of the unknowable kwamis with @Carapace and @ChatNoir, and working in team dynamics in a segment with @QueenBee!_


	2. Chapter 2

Max had informed Alya that he had another project to work on, and that he thought since things on chattr were running smoothly, that it would be an ideal time to pare back their web development meetings.

Alya had readily agreed, looking forward to spending time with Marinette.

Today, she and Marinette were hanging out in a park near Marinette’s place, and they were animatedly discussing Lila Rossi’s latest article.

“She’s very confident in my abilities to wrangle more heroes into chattr!” Alya exclaimed.

Marinette smiled. “You can definitely pull it off. And look here—did you read the part near the end of her article where she says ‘As other locales are added, one has to wonder whether chattr has a non-disclosure agreement with Team Ladybug about a future hero outreach program.’ I really want to do—I mean I want to _see_ that happen!”

“Yeah! If only we had thought of that! Think of the marketing opportunities!”

“Lila Rossi is pretty good for your marketing already,” Marinette said, smiling.

“Yeah, true… I’m sure Ladybug and the rest of the heroes won’t mind if they get encouragement from Rossi’s blog. It’s a pretty clever idea, even outside of marketing. A hero outreach program.” Alya pulled out her phone to text Max about whether or not he had read the article, and, just to be safe, whether or not he had heard from Rena Rouge about anything that the Parisian heroes wanted out of the future expanded servers for other superhero epicenters around the globe.

“It is really clever. But remember when you said something pretty similar on your interview with Mme. Chamack? Oh! And you wouldn’t happen to know what our heroes think of that outreach idea, would you?” Marinette asked Alya, blushing behind her phone.

Alya sighed, and looked up into the clouds. “Well… I don’t think I’m supposed to say this, but Rena Rouge is—” Marinette’s eye twitched. “—actually the chattr moderator for Paris. So I have an _idea_ about what they might think about that, but nothing I’m willing to say.”

Marinette breathed out a sigh of relief. “That’s cool.”

“I thought you’d be more excited about that, girl! I know Rena’s not Ladybug, but she just made sense. I’m sure you could guess that Ladybug is too busy for such a big responsibility as moderation.”

“Why would I be able to guess that Ladybug is busy?” Marinette’s eyes darted around, and her fingers clenched tightly on her phone. “I never have spoken to Chat Noir in my life! I don’t even know what a kwami is! I’m sure Ladybug is just a normal girl, like me! I mean, not like me at all!”

Alya laughed. “You do too know what a kwami is, girl!”

Marinette gave a nervous giggle. 

“Carapace and Chat Noir had a whole Q&A on chattr about it last week. And I know you read that,” Alya said, giving Marinette a pretend stern look. “And yeah, I actually do think that Ladybug is a normal girl like us. I mean, I run chattr and babysit and do homework! And you do babysitting, you’re the class representative, you help your parents, and we even have time to hang out! I think Ladybug isn’t just a normal girl like us, but an even _busier_ one!”

Marinette looked relieved again. “You’re right, Alya. I have way too much free time to be Ladybug.” Marinette clamped a hand over her purse.

Alya’s eyes darted to Marinette’s hand, then back up to her face, eyebrows raised. “Did you forget where your phone is? Because you’re still holding it in your other hand, you know.”

“Hahaha, right, silly me!” Said Marinette, blushing heavily. She relaxed her hand from her purse, and began swiping furiously at her phone screen. Alya pretended not to notice that Marinette’s phone screen wasn’t even on.

The pair sat in comfortable silence for a while. Alya’s phone soon vibrated with a notification from Max.

She read it and smiled. It looked like Rossi’s article had given Max a chaotic idea. It was just like him, honestly, given how much he liked superheroes. Alya had suspected that his ‘other project’ was a prototype video game based on the Parisian superhero situation. Naturally, he would jump to this new chaotic idea given his hero enthusiasm.

“Hey girl,” Alya began as she stood up and waited for Marinette to do the same. She started walking toward the fountain, determined to lap it at least once before they had to part ways. “How interested would you be in a new chattr feature?”

“Depends,” said Marinette. “What are you thinking?”

“What if you civilians could communicate with other heroes around the world?”

Marinette looked utterly fascinated.

* * *

Max paced Alya’s kitchen, thinking hard. Rossi’s blog had raised the stakes. She was a phenomenal blogger, which meant lots of readers. Due to her travelogue following, it was a safe bet to say that lots of Rossi’s readership came from foreign countries. Thus, Max felt like a clock was ticking on their website expansion. Rather than reckless nervousness, both Max and Alya felt more excited and zeroed-in on their efforts than ever before.

Alya was currently making a pasta dish for her twin sisters, whom she was technically babysitting that evening. She had told her mom Max was coming over, and that he could help with the twins. Alya was very grateful that her mom was used to having Max around enough so that it wasn’t weird. And Alya was even _more_ grateful that her Mom hadn’t freaked out about having a boy over unsupervised, or took anything out of context to make romantic jokes or insinuations. Alya felt very lucky that Nora wasn’t home, or else that certainly would have happened.

The twins were running around, in and out of rooms. They were chasing Markov around. Max had been concerned at first, but Alya had reassured him that the girls really just wanted to play, and if Markov just played along, there probably wouldn’t be any harm done. Markov had affirmed that Alya’s assessment of the risk involved of his being a playmate to Ella and Etta was correct, and so Max had relented.

“What’re you thinking?” Alya prodded.

“Hmm…” was Max’s only reply.

“Do you care if I put on some music? I like to listen while I cook but if it will interfere with your creative funk, then I wouldn’t dare. Don’t want to put the future of chattr at risk!”

Max spun around, ready to pace the length of the kitchen again. “Go ahead. I think best to GIMS, if you like him. If not, whatever’s fine.”

Alya was nodding, and removing herself from her stovetop task to flip through music on her phone.

Markov had evidently overheard the conversation from his hiding space (it was now a round of hide-and-go-seek). “Did you know that classical music is thought to stimulate intelligent thought in babies and youths?”

“GOTCHA!” Cried Ella, lunging for Markov. Etta followed close enough behind to catch Markov when he evaded her sister’s hands.

“Ah. I’ve been caught.” Markov looked thoroughly pleased.

Music started. Max gave Alya a thumbs up that it wasn’t too distracting.

Alya dashed back over to the pot, humming along. “Dinner will be ready in fifteen, girls!”

Max stopped pacing, and automatically went around the kitchen gathering place settings.

“Thanks Max,” Alya said, stirring the pot.

Max nodded. He was currently trying to parse out how they could possibly verify foreign moderators without an in-person meeting. Chattr was definitely causing an international buzz, and he was certain that there were already copycat websites popping up. He and Alya had already made a pact between themselves not to investigate them. They wanted their ideas to remain their own, and refused to become even slightly inspired by some knock-off.

“Alya,” he said after setting the table, now going around and straightening napkins. In the next room, it looked like a game of charades was quickly devolving into a dance party. “What do you propose we do for choosing moderators of other hero servers?”

Alya spared him a quick glance before turning her attention back to the pasta dish, which was smelling amazing. “Well, I was thinking we could see if I, if I could _contact_ Rena Rouge and see if she felt comfortable doing it? You know, a little hero-to-hero action? I think she’s trustworthy enough to be able to figure something out.”

Max smiled and bowed his head briefly. “Yes, that’s true. We wouldn’t have to devise a whole plan if we delegate it to heroes to evaluate other heroes.” He laughed at Markov’s dance moves from the other room. “Well, I think that’s a good idea, with one modification.”

“What?”

“I was thinking we could invite Pegasus to assist her.”

Alya’s nose scrunched up as she appeared to think about the idea. Then a timer went off on her phone. Quickly scrambling to turn it off, it appeared to Max that Alya used GIMS to think too.

“Hot stuff, coming through!” Alya carried the steaming pasta dish through to the table. “Hey girls! It’s time to come to dinner!”

She looked pointedly at Max when they didn’t come to the table, but erupted into fresh giggles instead.

“Markov, can you escort the twins to dinner?” Max called.

Markov’s robotic voice came toward the table. “I will try, but remember there is a seven-point-five percent chance they won’t follow.”

Luckily, as Markov proceeded to take a place at the table in between the twins’ settings, Ella and Etta both appeared to be excited to sit to dinner. They took turns pretending and ‘feeding’ the robot, and in return Markov made appreciative noises as if he were eating too.

Max started eating before Alya did, a mark of his comfort in her home. He glanced at Alya expectantly, trying to communicate through eyes and eyebrows that he was awaiting an answer so that he wouldn’t have to speak with his mouthful.

Alya grinned. An idea had struck. “Hey girls, who’s your favorite superhero? Hmm?”

Ella gasped. “That’s easy!”

Etta agreed, arms akimbo. “Too easy.”

The twins glanced at each other. “Wonder Woman!”

Alya glanced at Max. “Does Paris have any superheroes that would be friends with Wonder Woman?”

The girls seemed to think again.

“Remember to eat your nourishment,” Markov intoned. “Nourishment gives the power to be heroes, in playtime.”

Alya and Max shared a glance and shook with silent laughter.

“Here’s a hint!” Alya said dramatically, capturing the twins’ attention more fully. “Who could visit the Amazons in their world?”

“Pegasus!” Ella exclaimed.

Etta folded her arms. “Yeah but I wish he was a _unicorn._ ”

“Me too dear, me too.” Alya responded.

“But he is the best at traveling,” Etta conceded.

“Well Max, there you have it. Your idea is twins-approved.” Alya winked at the twins, who puffed up in pride at the allegation that they had helped.

“Yes, well, your hint means that it’s you-approved too,” Max pointed out. But he was pleased that both Ella and Etta could see that Pegasus was necessary for traveling.

“I want to play with Max next. Markov needs to sleep after eating,” Ella declared.

“Yeah, Markov is too tired for us now.”

“Actually, robots do not have the circadian rhythms of human beings,” Markov began to contradict her.

“But he will ‘sleep’ so Max can hang out with you,” Alya interrupted before the twins could take Markov’s statements too seriously.

Max gave Alya a helpless look, but she waved him on. “While you entertain them,” Alya said, “I’ll clean up here and shoot a message to Pegasus. It was a good idea. I also have another thing to deal with that I’d like to finish mulling over. I can share _that_ with you once our company is smaller.”

“Okay, but you owe me one!” Max called, as the twins helpfully took him by the sleeves and started to drag him to another part of the house.

Alya just rolled her eyes as she, with Markov’s assistance, began to gather up the used dishes. Max was actually pretty good with kids. Speaking of people good with kids, her phone pinged with a message from Marinette.

Alya tried to convince herself to finish doing dishes before responding, but didn’t make it any further than the first plate until she was too tempted to avoid her phone much longer.

She picked it up, and laughed to herself about her lack of surprise regarding a new article by Lila Rossi. Marinette’s text read: ‘Alya, look at this! I hope this article tells the future. If you thought you and Max were crazy about superheroes, you haven’t heard me talk about these ones :) omg read her article asap.’

Alya did so at once. The link led to headlines of theories about where chattr’s trajectory could take the future of heroics. The most prominent featured a ragtag group of American heroes, which Rossi said unnecessarily distinguished themselves from other run-of-the-mill heroes by the term ‘vigilantes’.

Alya smiled to herself. So Marinette was a fan of foreign heroes? Alya messaged her best friend back, saying that she ‘knows someone who could pull a few strings’ and that it could be very likely that Gotham would appear as the first trial of the expanded chattr base.

* * *

Marinette was only too happy when she heard Alya and Max’s newest plan (in confidence of course) to enlist the aid of the hero Pegasus in tracking down potential moderators. They spoke in hushed tones as they ‘finished their in-class assignment’.

“That’s a brilliant idea! How did you ask him? I mean, I’ve heard that Pegasus is really hard to get ahold of, not that I’d know, but I saw something on chattr?”

“Oh Marinette, I don’t do the asking. For Rena Rouge and for Pegasus, I’ve delegated the task to Max. After all, I think that I shouldn’t have to handle all of the social calls. Think of it like co-parenting, or even being a creative spirit. You wouldn’t want someone, be it spouse or friend, to just assume that you’ll handle a bunch of responsibilities just because you’ve done so in the past, would you?”

“That’s very wise, Alya. But wait! Do you mean that Max tried to make you do social things you didn’t want to do?” Marinette looked horrified.

Alya laughed, easing the expression on Marinette’s face. “Of course not! I merely have strong beliefs about delegation and settling into patterns that shouldn’t even exist. Believe me, I couldn’t be pushed around if someone tried.”

“Oh! I didn’t mean that you would be,” Marinette said hurriedly.

“No, don’t worry. I’m more concerned about you, girl! Do you have a break? An outlet? Besides doing things for your friends? Make sure you take a day off once in a while, m’kay? I know I said a long time ago that Ladybug was probably busier than us in her private life, but I’m beginning to think I was wrong about that. I think you’re far more swamped by life than she is.”

“That’s really kind of you, Alya. You always look out for me. And I’m sure Ladybug also appreciated you looking out for her back when you decided to have Parisian hero moderation done by Rena Rouge.” Marinette smiled at Alya as the bell rang and class ended.

The two girls left the classroom and headed in the direction of the bike racks so they could ride home for the day.

“Maybe,” said Marinette, “I should take some time off to maintain my well-being. But I hope things go well with Pegasus!”

“Smart! And yeah, we’re excited to hear back from Pegasus. We definitely need to iron out a few details with him first before going into real planning mode. I think we might put the site down for ‘maintenance’ as well, so we can get the first additional hero group onto chattr!”

“Really? That’s wonderful news Alya! I’m glad for your and Max’s progress!”

“Thanks girl. I’m sure you’ll be even more excited when I tell you that the additional group prefer to be known as vigilantes,” Alya finished, sending Marinette a wink.

Marinette blushed. “Oh Alya, I didn’t realize you were serious the other night! I mean, I know you’re serious about the website, it’s like your child, but I thought you might have been teasing!”

“Not at all! You know I’d do anything for my homegirl!”

* * *

_Attention, chattr users. We will be doing some web maintenance in the coming months as we run our pilot programs for additional superhero hotspots around the globe. We hope to share more updates on this project soon!_


	3. Chapter 3

Rena Rouge was perched delicately on the edge of the Arc de Triomphe, and next to her sat Carapace. She was fairly confident they had a thing going on. At least, whenever she flirted, he reacted favorably and sometimes she thought that Carapace might even be flirting back.

A loud _thunk_ indicated another presence aboard the arch, and Rena turned slightly to use her periphery to figure out who it was. There was Chat Noir, starting to preen.

Rena grabbed Carapace’s hand impulsively and squeezed it. “Hey,” she said. _Real smooth, Alya. Real smooth._

“Hey,” Carapace responded. He gently flipped the hand she was squeezing over so their palms were touching, and spread his fingers under hers so they could lace them together.

Rena smiled at him, and slowly leaned towards him, resting her head on his shoulder. Yep. This was definitely a ‘thing’.

For a while, they were content to stay seated like this, occasionally hearing obnoxious traffic from below or Chat Noir fiddling about as he continued to preen. This was nice. Rena doubted Marinette would experience something like this with any American vigilante, no matter how much she admired them. These kinds of sweet moments only happened in person.

Then all of a sudden a shout and a second loud pair of _thunks_ indicated the final arrivals. Pegasus and Ladybug had arrived.

Rena and Carapace slowly stood up, releasing each others’ hands but still standing close in a way that meant something; they were something more than just partners in stopping crime.

Ladybug momentarily raised a brow at them, smiled, and turned to thank Pegasus for her unconventional journey to the Arc de Triomphe.

“M’lady,” Chat Noir greeted her, bowing as dramatically as possible.

“Chat,” she responded. “Carapace, would you mind if I have a word with these three privately? I’ll not be a moment if… well, anyways…” Ladybug was evidently at a loss for how to handle the situation of seeing two of her team members so close, and didn’t want to tread too deeply into awkward territory.

“I can just wait for you at the base of the Arc? I promise I don’t have any enhanced turtle-y hearing, dudes.” He smiled at everyone, gently pressed his hand to Rena’s upper arm, and then saluted his goodbye as he scaled down the arch.

“Okay. To business everyone,” Ladybug conducted. “Huddle in close. I don’t need this getting out any sooner than it has to.”

“Oooh, what is it?” Chat Noir asked.

“I have a hunch,” Rena said.

“Your hunch is likely right, Rena. I’m here together with Chat to tell you and Pegasus good luck on your task. But also to offer any help you might need. What can we do for you guys?”

“I was right then,” Rena said. “Pegasus, have you thought of anything? I know we haven’t had much of a chance to work one-on-one together yet, but I get the feeling that you are a very plan-oriented guy.”

“To be honest, I did not anticipate receiving your help, Ladybug, nor yours, Chat Noir,” Pegasus said. “But I do have two things to run by you.”

“Go for it,” Ladybug urged.

“I wondered if, since this is a pilot program for chattr, whether we should communicate with and follow the advice of its creators, or if since this mission highly probably comes with benefits in our schemes against Hawkmoth, if we should strictly work to our own agenda?” Pegasus paused and studied Ladybug and Chat Noir each, before saying, “My second question is whether we should locate someone more like Ladybug, like a team leader or person who is constantly deferred to, or if we should search out someone more akin to Rena Rouge, the current moderator and go-between for Parisian heroes on the chattr side of business?”

Again, Pegasus fixed them with such an intense stare each that Ladybug found herself rather glad his sunglasses partially obscured it.

Chat Noir mused thoughtfully, leaning on his baton. “Those are good points! Any words of wisdom for their future, oh Lady Fortune?” Chat Noir gazed up at Ladybug.

Rena managed a weak smile for his pun.

“Well, since we don’t know at this point hardly anything about what these other heroes could offer us, I’d say that it makes the most sense to communicate with chattr beforehand. So whatever is most efficient is probably best. Although I cannot imagine that the web creators will have anything too demanding to ask of either of you. When I have interacted with them, they are very courteous and friendly,” Ladybug said. “What do you think, Chat?”

“I’m in agreement there. It would be wiser for us to assess what would be beneficial to our team after meeting these _complete strangers,_ online.” He shrugged. “Anyway, Rena hasn’t been outfoxed yet! You guys can make good decisions on your own and I think that so long as you don’t get any bad vibes, you both can canter on over to their continent whenever you feel up to it!”

Pegasus nodded. Rena looked pleased with Chat Noir’s compliment.

“Chat’s right. We trust you guys! And we trust the staff of chattr, too,” Ladybug looked at each of them. Rena swallowed. “So you guys can listen to whatever they have to say.”

“After all, they did make it _chat_ tr! So if they can recognize my genius, they’re clearly worth listening to!” Chat Noir sobered. “But seriously, I think we’re all overthinking this. It’s way cool that we can potentially talk to other heroes, so as long as you two play it cool, everything will be great. Think of all the possibilities that could come of this! Let’s be excited, relaxed about this. Alright?”

“Sounds good,” Rena smiled.

“That is much less daunting,” Pegasus agreed.

“Yes,” Ladybug said. “So now, I wish you both good luck! Bonne chance! Let those people with chattr know that I’d love to hear from them whenever things have connected, okay?”

“No problem,” said Pegasus, flicking imaginary dust off of his arm.

“Yes! Let this black cat be a good fortune to you both!”

“Thanks guys, I think we can definitely handle things from here on out,” Rena said.

Ladybug waved her goodbyes, and she split ways from them.

Chat Noir leaned in close once Ladybug was out of sight to add, “I think m’lady is secretly overjoyed at the idea of swapping tales and tactics with other heroes. Just thought I’d drop you that line,” he winked as he sauntered off to the edge of the arc, extended his baton, and vaulted away.

After successfully dismounting the Arc de Triomphe, Rena Rouge waved broadly to Carapace, who was swarmed with fans from the nighttime traffic. Carapace waved back at her, and walked toward her, parting the crowd.

“Shall we?” She gestured to the distant rooftops.

“Let’s!” Carapace said, smiling warmly.

They raced off together to the rooftops.

“What do you think of being able to consult the expertise of other heroes?” She asked him.

“You mean that mission to Gotham? I think there’re some cool dudes there. But my favorite hero is already here with me in Paris,” Carapace finished with a wink.

Rena smiled. “As is mine. But I get the feeling that Ladybug is pretty excited to have an excuse to talk to those vigilantes.”

“Hey Rena,” Carapace said as they raced around gables, “if you really want to, you know, be together, shouldn’t we put something on chattr? I bet those other fans around the Arc noticed us leaving together, and I bet you’d like to beat Rossi to the punch, right?”

“Ah, you know me so well, my darling turtle boy. Let’s get over there,” she pointed to a spot not too far off of their current course, “and get a picture together. You know, for posterity’s sake.”

Carapace smiled at her. “You’ve got it.”

* * *

_@RenaRouge_

_[Photo ID: A headshot of Rena Rouge kissing the blushing mess that is her new boyfriend, Carapace.]_

_Attention all! We are no longer just partners in fighting crime. We are now a literal power couple! Gros bisous all! (Especially to you, ma tortue :))_


End file.
